Otherside Festival 2024

Background

An outdoor electronic music festival in Ireland in March? Celebrating St Patrick’s Day? Bring Your Own Booze? 3 weeks to get our heads around the plans? We love a challenge at The Fair!

Creative agency Bedlam Productions approached The Fair to seek support in managing their live event, Otherside Festival in Slane, Ireland. Being on St. Patrick’s Day, there were many factors to consider – predominately health & safety and operational support.

Bedlam sought The Fair’s consultancy to review and input into their operational plans and draft traffic management for the agency’s first-ever day festival. We had to take into consideration Ireland’s licensing conditions, as under Irish laws, commercial events with a capacity of 5,000 or less can be hosted, as long as no alcohol is being sold. This meant attendees could bring their own alcohol, up to a set limit.

Acts included Chris Stussy, Yasmin Gardezi b2b IMNOTYOURMATE, Dylan Fogarty, Orbit, Tommy Holohan and more.

Challenge

The site: this was first time the client had used this particular site for a day festival, and it had only previously been used as a camping music festival in the summer.
The weather: conditions in March is less than ideal for outdoor music festivals, especially from a festival production point of view!
The timings: due to the late afternoon start (the event was operational from 16:00 to 23:00) peak ingress was expected to be from 16:00 to 17:00. We needed to be confident that all 3,500 attendees could be processed in this short period of time. With the help of our on-site H&S advisor from sister agency We Are OPS, we ensured the site was signed off 30 minutes before doors, enabling early arrivals into the site. A dynamic risk assessment of this meant that we could increase the peak ingress time and gradually allow attendees into the site without creating a back-log between 15:30-16:00.
The transport: all 3,500 attendees arrived by vehicle. While the majority had booked via the official coach transport provider, it was expected that a large number of private coaches and minibuses would arrive.
The external factors: there was a parade in the town centre of Slane, which meant our northbound route would be closed until 18:00. All traffic would then arrive from southbound, meaning the main road outside our event site could not be congested to minimise any impact on the local residents.
The egress: all official coaches needed to be parked in a designated area, in a way that allowed them to be loaded based on 5 different drop locations. This would enable the coaches to leave the site when full of attendees, not having to wait for other coaches to leave and avoiding any blockages.
The routes: there was only a one-way route into the site for production, pedestrians, and coaches. A stop-start system had to be managed very carefully to ensure traffic could flow in and out from the site to the Pick-up Drop-off.
Despite ingress / egress challenges: the site was signed off from H&S 30 minutes before doors, which meant we could allow early arrivals into the site. A dynamic risk assessment of this meant that we could increase the peak ingress time and gradually allow attendees into the site without creating a back-log between 15:30-16:00. All attendees and coaches were cleared in a 1.5-hour period, and efficiencies were made in coach parking, creating a clearer route for coaches leaving the site.

8 days on site
Health & safety management and consulting
Event liaison team chairing
Safety Advisory Group attendance
Event Safety Management Plan & other safety documentation delivered
Premises Licence application and the licence was granted
Event Liaison Team Chair & management

Results

Delivery

Successful delivery of a brand-new festival in a new territory for The Fair
Capacity modelling for ingress calculations
Traffic Management Plans and Management
Crowd Management
Heath & Safety Advisor Role onsite
Event Director Role onsite (Gold Command)

Results

A safe and successful egress for all vehicles within 1 hour
All 3,500 attendees entered the site within a 90-minute period
Great collaborative approach from The Fair, undertaking the event director role, and We Are OPS, for health and safety management
Exceptional feedback from the client, who requested The Fair to work on their next event at Rock Farm, Slane